R-boy was born in the wee hours of a Thursday morning, on 9/9/99. This Thursday morning, he turned 11. We celebrated him.
I kept trying all day to capture the big, big, big smile I saw on R-boy throughout the day. This is as close as I could come.
After dinner at R-boy’s fave restaurant, where he got treated to a FREE DINNER when the manager overheard it was his birthday (thank you Mr. George!!), R-kids and I headed to the cheap theatre for a fun movie.
No, not the schmucky one, people!
Then we headed home for a few final presents. Including the “big” one, as they say. (R-boy had already opened the new socks and jammies, lol.)
This year, figuring out that “big” one really had me in a bind. What the heck to get the boy who dreams pretty big when it comes to birthday wishes?? There’s no getting around the fact that the $15 gifts don’t have quite the same impact as they did when the boy was three. I can live with disappointed kids. I can. And it’s probably good for all of us in R-house to walk that path once in a while. But—totally honest? I was hoping I could avoid it this year…
Happily, I had one of those serendipitous, it-all-fell-into-place experiences that was as much a gift to mom here as to R-boy.
Here’s the scoop:
I had considered giving R-boy cash this year so he could add it to the substantial amount of money he has been saving on his own. That way he could actually get one of his big-dream gifts for himself. But how boring for an 11-year-old to open a piece of green paper on his birthday…
While stewing over this last night on my last-minute gift-grabbing run, I stopped in to Goodwill. (R-kids are sooo used to getting at least a couple used gifts!)
And there it was.
Just what I didn’t know I was looking for.
A life-sized parking meter piggy bank.
I know! Whatever! Who makes those? Who uses them? Who buys them? Who takes them to Goodwill?
And who would have guessed that R-boy’s room is completely decked out in street signs and license plates??! Do you get a little buzz thinking of how perfectly a parking meter will fit in there? Uh huh. Me too.
OK, so now I had a plan: Fill the parking meter as much as I could with cash. Way more fun than a gift card or a couple bills in an envelope.
But sheesh, that parking meter would hold like, oh, $1,200 in quarters! How could I make it look even a little bit full?
Well, smaller coins could take up a little more space.
Maybe nickels…
Then I remembered two things:
Number one: I owe R-boy $100-plus for some things he sold on ebay. I haven’t had the cash on hand to give it to him. Now would be a great time to fork over his dough—plus maybe a little extra as his gift.
Number two:
A couple weeks ago I bought two 100-year-old money bags at this insane garage sale with crazy old stuff and the original owners right there telling me about each item. The money bags had been used at a family grocery in Northeast Minneapolis. They’re so old and authentic John Dillinger himself could have held the same stinking bags!
And do you know what one of the bags has printed right on it?
And that’s the story of how R-boy’s “big” bday gift came together this year. AND how I almost threw out my back carrying 44 pounds of nickels out of the bank. (Because I now know that’s how much $200 in nickels weighs.)
Now it’s R-boy who’s left with a dilemma. Fill his parking meter with this totally nutty amount of nickels? (4000!) Tempting. OR keep the nickels wrapped, cash them out at the bank, and buy himself something really, really nice.
Can’t wait to see what he decides…
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